Arts
The Powerhouse scandal: A case study in cultural vandalism
Beware governments that talk about community consultation, but in practice fall in with the wishes of the developers. At the end of July, after months of speculation and in flagrant disregard for her own government’s community consultation process, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced that the Powerhouse Museum would after all be moved from Ultimo to Parramatta, as resolved by her predecessor Mike Baird two years ago.
It was an outrageous move, coming on the eve of the second of two planned community consultation meetings. The Coalition government had convened these only under great pressure. Attendees had been asked to register and send in their top three questions about options for Parramatta and Ultimo in order to give input to the “extended business case” for the proposed move.
The first meeting, in Parramatta on July 26, revealed that contrary to the Coalition’s hopes, most Western Sydney attendees wanted the museum to remain in Ultimo. They were clear that the neglected western suburbs were in serious need of cultural infrastructure but preferred either an art gallery (the option favoured by Parramatta Council’s own cultural plan), a satellite for exhibitions from all CBD institutions, or a museum of their own area’s rich indigenous, colonial and modern history …